Fresh & easy ricotta by Flour + Water chef

Thomas McNaughton, chef owner of Flour + Water in S.F., makes fresh ricotta for a salad.

Thomas McNaughton, chef owner of Flour + Water in S.F., makes fresh ricotta for a salad.

Photo: Santiago Mejia, The Chronicle

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Flour + Water chef Thomas McNaughton adds fresh, homemade ricotta to this composed salad, which includes peas and asparagus.

Flour + Water chef Thomas McNaughton adds fresh, homemade ricotta to this composed salad, which includes peas and asparagus.

Photo: Santiago Mejia, The Chronicle

Fresh & easy ricotta by Flour + Water chef

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I first met Thomas McNaughton in 2009, shortly before he opened his first restaurant, Flour + Water. He was a baby-faced 27-year-old, a blue-eyed Jersey transplant, late of La Folie, Gary Danko and Quince, who looked — and likely was — scared out of his mind.

Now, six years later, Flour + Water is one of San Francisco’s most celebrated restaurants and McNaughton one of its most celebrated chefs. He and co-owners David Steele and David White have gone on to create something of a small empire, one that includes Central Kitchen and Salumeria, which opened in 2012, and Aaxte and Cafe du Nord, which opened earlier this summer.

Italy, particularly Bologna, where McNaughton lived and worked for a time, remains close to his heart. Italian food is a particular passion for the chef, who makes some of the city’s most extraordinary pasta. The house-made dogma is as strong here as at any Bay Area restaurant, and McNaughton and his team can bake, pickle, butcher and ferment with the best of them.

They also make ricotta cheese daily. It requires only three ingredients and a very modest investment of time to produce a versatile cheese that you can toss with pasta, spread on bread, serve with berries and honey, or spoon onto a cheese plate alongside any number of pickles and condiments, which is how it’s typically served at Flour + Water.

Versatility aside, the most compelling reason to try your hand at making ricotta at home is because, as is often the case, homemade is better than most store-bought varieties, which often contain stabilizers or are whipped to achieve a fluffy, uniform consistency.

Recipe

At home, you can choose to let your ricotta drain briefly for a soft, spreadable cheese, or refrigerate it overnight, resulting in a crumbly ricotta that’s good on pizzas or in a salad.

And save the whey, ricotta’s byproduct. McNaughton uses the tart, calcium-rich liquid in braises and sauces, but it can be transformed into a simple soda, used in baking recipes in place of buttermilk, or as a substitute for water when cooking polenta.